Cloud computing is considered one of the top transformational IT changes and trends in 2010 and onwards. Cloud computing provides a scalable, dynamic, and distributed infrastructure for enabling applications to dynamically obtain and utilize computing resources on demand.
Most businesses have existing computer software applications that are not engineered or architected for cloud computing. Many existing applications cannot perform distributed and parallel processing and are unable to be deployed on an elastic cloud computing environment without significant changes to the existing applications' source code and application architecture. The challenge is applying a cost effective and simple migration and transformation process for legacy applications and products so that they can be incorporated into the cloud computing environment.
A legacy system or application program is a previously deployed third party or internally developed customer application that continues to be used, typically because it still functions for the users' needs or is too expensive to replace, even though newer technology or more efficient methods of performing a task are now available. Legacy applications include programs having JAVA® command lines, client and server applications based on JAVA thin client, MICROSOFT® thin client and server-based applications, Client/Server applications, Client workstation applications, third party independent software vendor applications, and proprietary client applications running on proprietary architectures and operating systems. Legacy application programs are typically serially programmed, linear in performance, residing in only one data center and with a limited number of users constrained by geographic or business location.
To implement an existing legacy application in the cloud computing environment and enable the application to be distributed, parallel, and demand-elastic is a very expensive and time-consuming activity. The existing application architecture and source code needs to be re-factored and significantly rewritten, tested extensively, and re-integrated with its existing applications.
The cost and time to implement such a legacy application re-write can exceed the original cost and development time. Given these impediments, businesses are unable to adapt their existing applications to the cloud computing environment. The new Cloud paradigm offers huge business and technical value including parallel processing, distributed, use anywhere, high performance, high resiliency, high accessibility and high availability.
This significant divergence in technology deployment and accessibility creates a significant challenge: the cost effective and manageable ability to migrate applications, best processes and institutionalized intellectual property from serial, linear, data center or application confined applications to a new technology paradigm of agile, competitive, massively performed, use anywhere and broadly distributed/accessible functions. It is this challenge that the invention specifically addresses.
Accordingly, the objective of the present invention is to provide a non-intrusive and assimilation model which enables these legacy applications to be transformed from standalone, serial-based computing to highly distributed, parallel processing and cooperating cloud application services. The innovation combines the cloud-centric, distributed, and parallel processing neuron platform infrastructure with a suite of legacy wrapper libraries to assimilate or “wrap” and encapsulate legacy applications and enable them to operate within the neuron cloud computing platform.
The present invention incorporates technology and process innovation, using the assignee's distributed neuron platform computing design and high performance, highly resilient virtual server for the migration of legacy applications to cloud that is simple, quick and a fraction of the cost of traditional migration and porting solutions and referred to herein as the neuron platform or neuron platform and technology or neuron technology.